Mother Accused Of Neglect

3-year-old Son Hit By Car On Street In Manchester

Mother Accused Of Neglect After Son Hit By Car

September 05, 1991|By STEVE JENSEN; Courant Staff Writer

MANCHESTER — C A mother who ignored repeated warnings from police to supervise her children was arrested on felony child-neglect charges Wednesday after her 3-year-old son ran into busy Main Street and was struck by a car.

Aminah Majid, 37, of 14 Wadsworth St., was arrested at Manchester Memorial Hospital, where her son was taken for treatment of head injuries suffered in the 3 p.m. accident. A hospital spokesman said the boy, Hassan Newman, was in stable condition late Wednesday and was being prepared for release.

Majid's record of neglect prompted authorities from the state Department of Children and Youth Services to take custody of him and Majid's three other children Wednesday, police said. Majid was being held late Wednesday in lieu of $20,000 bond.

Lt. John Mott said police and authorities from the children's services department had warned Majid numerous times in recent months to take better care of her children, whose ages range from 3 to 8.

Police and department authorities were called to her apartment in a multifamily house several times after neighbors complained that the childern were left alone during the day and were roaming around nearby Main Street and Friendly's restaurant without supervision.

Majid often refused to open the door to officers responding to the complaints, police said, forcing officers to yell warnings to her through a broken window on the front door.

"It's not like this was out of the blue," Mott said of Majid's arrest. "She's been totally neglecting her children." Less than a week ago, police were called to her apartment after three teenagers became concerned when they found the 3-year-old boy playing around Friendly's in his diapers, police said. Other witnesses told police the boy often has been seen crossing Main Street alone.

On July 4, police said, Majid's 8-year-old son was nearly hit by a car while playing in front of the post office on nearby Center

Street. Those incidents and others had prompted police to obtain two warrants for Majid's arrest on two counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Mott said police had received the warrants only hours before Wednesday's accident, and had planned to serve them on Majid today, accompanied by children's services authorities who were to take custody of the children.

Wednesday's accident -- in which the 3-year-old boy was thrown into the air by the car's impact and landed face-down on the curb in front of Friendly's -- only accelerated the inevitable, Mott said.

The car's driver, a 67-year-old Hebron woman, was not injured or charged in the accident.

Majid arrived at the scene as the boy was being treated by paramedics, and shoved a paramedic while trying to pull the boy away, police said. She later scuffled with an officer at the hospital, police said.

According to police records, Majid, a single parent, had once told officers that she had trouble controlling her children, but was doing the best she could with them.

She was charged in the Wednesday incident with risk of injury to a minor, interfering with an officer and refusing to submit to fingerprinting, police said. She was to be arraigned in Superior Court here today.

Risk of injury to a minor is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.